psql terminal / quote-key

Hi all,
when I invoke psql-client from my normal user account, the prompt does
not accept the [']-key (quote). In a regular shell, I can type as many
's as I want to. If I start psql as root, everything works all right.
In both cases, \encoding shouts LATIN1.
OS is FreeBSD5.3, psql is 7.4.7
I appreciate nearly any hint to look after.

Thanks,
Dorian